Khushboo Shah, Author at North West End UK

The Good Person of Szechwan – Lyric Hammersmith

22Apr

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

The Good Person of Szechwan – Lyric Hammersmith

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the first performance of Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan, Lyric Hammersmith is an ideal home with its aim of reinventing classics. Boldly translated by Nina Segal, and directed by Anthony Lau, this rendition is surreal, emotionally unsettling, and powerful! True to Brecht’s convention of theatre, but ripped off its extreme didacticism, the creative team should take a bow for cohesively repositioning the production with oomph and wonder. The play begins with Wang, the water seller (Leo Wan) prancing in a swim-suit and flippers, mocking the city-dwellers and their stupidity in paying money for a free resource like water as he waits for the Gods (Nick Blakeley, Callum Coates, Tim Samuels) who appear in pristine white toga outfits whic...

20Mar

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

Swim – Omnibus Theatre

Swim is a warm, tender, and humbling story, based on true events, written and performed by Liz Richardson. In an hour-long performance, she encapsulates her journey of moving out of London’s anonymity with her family and settling into a village up north amidst nature and within a community where everyone knows everyone’s business. Of course, at the centre of it, is the experience of swimming in natural water bodies, like she did in her childhood, and how it affects this community at different phases in their lives, particularly her best friend whose sisters have lost their children. The metallic backdrop and oval flooring with blurry visuals shifting in tandem with the story, invite the audience to experience this tale which opens casually with Richardson talking about why she wanted to...

Marjorie Prime – Menier Chocolate Factory

17Mar

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

Marjorie Prime – Menier Chocolate Factory

Portraying several disturbing, existential, and poignant thoughts about humanity massively engulfed by technology, Marjorie Prime is set in a futuristic world that doesn’t seem so far. Written by Jordan Harrison and directed by Dominic Dromgoole, it is an important piece of theatre, more relevant than ever before. The play opens with Marjorie (Anne Reid), 88, born in 1977, suffering from dementia, conversing with an android 30-something version of her husband Walter (Richard Fleeshman). As the story progresses and the characters die, they are replaced with their humanoid versions programmed by those who are alive. At the heart of this play are questions about identity, memory, and life-death paraphernalia- “Living is a distraction from death.” Dramaturgically brilliant, packed with m...

12Feb

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

This is the Land – Vault Festival

Five ghost-like, unidentifiable, unreal performers, all in black, inhabit the stage from start to end and present a visceral and powerful series of images, movement and sound sequences occasionally breathing life into props around- chairs, threads of cotton, grocery and coats! Directed by Mary Steadman and created in collaboration with performers Leeza Jessie, Alice Barton, Xavier De Santos, Samuel De La Torre, and Sofia Velez, This is the Land indeed creates an atmosphere of dream-like liminality using themes associated with the cycle of seasons. It does so by channelling some narratives or images that might emerge using the archetype of Trickster- the one who defies conventional behaviour and is not afraid to experiment. While it was not always possible to comprehend a singular na...

<strong>Rumpelstiltskin – Park Theatre</strong>

17Dec

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

Rumpelstiltskin – Park Theatre

Offie Award Winner Charles Court Opera presents an action-packed pantomime Rumpelstiltskin this festive season at The Park Theatre written and directed by John Savournin. The classic tale by Brothers Grimm breaks into a unique plot tracing the adventure of a greedy Rumpelstiltskin as he journeys towards reclaiming his identity after having forgotten his name to Dreamcatcher’s vicious ploy. On this journey, this consumeristic little goblin comes across several interesting characters in different places, offshoots of different classics at the mercy of the Dreamcatcher. Some help him, some ditch him. How does he reclaim his identity and what changes in him? The Panto opens with a delightful musical track ‘Once upon a time’ performed by Emily Cairns, Tamoy Phipps and Lucy Whitney dramatisin...

<strong>Circus 1903 – Eventim Apollo</strong>

17Dec

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

Circus 1903 – Eventim Apollo

Circus 1903 returns to London at its new home this festive season at Eventim Apollo with its supreme skill and showmanship to transport the audiences to the ‘Golden Age of circus’. With an effortless flow, a troupe of global artists present dare-devil performances, sometimes dazzling the audience, sometimes keeping them at the edge of their seats but always entertained and mesmerised. This is interspersed with Ringmaster Willy Whipsnade’s (performed by David Williamson) acerbic yet charming exchange with young people from the audience. While they are mesmerised by the ringmaster’s hands-on magic and spectacle, the elder audience is thoroughly amused. The show format is traditional and simple directed by Neil Dorward and highlights the talent, rigour, and finesse of diverse artists with ...

<strong>As You Like It – Soho Place</strong>

17Dec

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

As You Like It – Soho Place

Doing absolute justice to the title As You Like It, director Josie Rourke reinvigorates Shakespeare’s classic comedy making it inclusive, accessible, and thus relevant. In the Forest of Arden, characters explore possibilities of not just their individual pursuits but also by who has played them impregnating Shakespeare’s lines with multiple layers and meanings. It's up to the audience to interpret how they like it! While certain parts are played by gender-fluid, non-binary, and trans performers, Celia is played by Rose Ayling-Ellis who is a deaf performer and Rosalind played by Leah Harvey use sign language to communicate. This production is elevated by how it celebrates its casts’ identities and uses them to theatrically add meaning and value to the play bringing it closer to a more real ...

<strong>Othello – National Theatre</strong>

5Dec

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

Othello – National Theatre

The most common thematic link in Shakespeare’s Othello to the present times has been race and patriarchy. While it would be grossly wrong to say that we are over these issues, the complexities in these two realms in contemporary society have simply multiplied with ever-increasingly polarising viewpoints. Clint Dyer’s Othello brings the production to “2022”’s National Theatre with scenographic brilliance, stellar performances, and contextual relevance. Performed by a powerful cast with Giles Terera as Othella distinguished from an all-white ensemble, Dyer’s Othello not only “cleans up”, both literally and figuratively, as witnessed in the beginning, the preceding production by Laurence Olivier of 1964 but also reinstates the fact that we are still far from a post-racial society. The strong ...

17Oct

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

Forgotten Voices – Canal Cafe Theatre

When the personal is blended with the political in theatre, the outcome is likely to stir the audience with myriad reflections on the unjustness of life. This was indeed the case with Forgotten Voices written by David Moorhead, directed by Margaret Connell and performed by Shareesa Valentine at Canal Cafe Theatre, quite befittingly, as part of the Black History Month celebration. Simple but not simplistic, the play is ambitiously written, encompassing multiple complex layers of Moorhead’s grandmother Eva Moorhead Kadalie’s biographical episodes and running parallel, the South African history of apartheid. Thus, the play skilfully serves the dual purpose of narrating the story of a strong, affective, and resilient woman and educating the audience on the ethos of the times and life of South ...

14Jun

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

The False Servant – Orange Tree Theatre

Gender fluid yet stereotypical, Martin Crimp’s translation of Pierre Marivaux’s French play The False Servant is probably the outcome of Commedia del'arte being shredded off its extreme archetypes and placed in a slightly modern context. Often reminiscent of Shakespeare and Moliere’s comedy, filled with subplots, disguise and conceit, wit and irony, courtship and lust, Orange Tree Theatre production presented The False Servant directed by their artistic director Paul Miller. The play opens announcing its period origins with the ensemble walking and bowing to festive and joyful music. We first meet Trivelin (Will Brown), the voluble and opportunistic aristocrat reduced to poverty by circumstance and Frontin (Uzair Bhatti) who introduces Trivelin to his mistress/ master successfully provi...